Star is back in spotlight
She’s a dead ringer for Meghan Markle and, like Prince Harry’s girlfriend, actress Nalini Chetty is back in the spotlight
What the audiences will relate to is the recognition of some of their families, people they know. It’s a heightened reality
THERE is an unexpected surprise that comes with meeting former River City star Nalini Chetty after a couple of years.
Sure as Prince Harry is a ginger, doesn’t she look a dead ringer for Meghan Markle?
“A few people have said that,” she says, grinning. “It’s made life interesting now she’s come along.”
Well, they’re right. But being compared to the soonto-be most famous woman in the world is only a small part of the changes in the life of Nalini Chetty.
TheworldoftheEastLothianborn actress has been dramatically reshaped in the past few years. Since being blown up in River City (gangster Lenny was, as always, to blame), Nalini has married and had a baby son, Luca.
Acting has been pushed to one side. And so has writing, despite having a hugely wellreceived play, Kontomble, staged at Oran Mor, Glasgow.
Right now, however, she’s back on the acting horse. We’re at the Tron theatre during her lunch break for rehearsals for a new comedy play. The 35-year-old talks excitedly about Martin McCormick’s new show, Ma, Pa And The Little Mouths, working alongside Karen Dunbar and Gerry Mulgrew.
It’s certainly a show that will reset the actress in the minds of the public so used to seeing her play the mercurial Zinnie in River City.
Ma, Pa And The Little Mouths is described as “absurdist”. So what’s it about?
“It has its own beautiful language and rhythm,” she offers. “It’s a little odd working with a piece that doesn’t have a linear narrative. And it’s so clever and so funny.”
Yes, yes, but having said all those flowery things, Nalini, what’s it about? She laughs.
“Karen says it’s about a giant chicken. Gerry says it’s about existentialist angst. And me? I think it’s about the absurdity of the everyday.
“What the audiences will relate to is the recognition of some of their families, people they know. It’s a heightened reality.”
But if comedy emerges from truth, Nalini, (who plays a jogger, Neil) where is the truth in tales of giant chickens?
“Yes, but what is reality these days?” she poses, grinning. “I read the paper coming into work this morning and there’s a guy in Cumbernauld stockpiling weapons. Or there’s another story about someone who has been abducted by their stepfather – or Trump is tweeting something mad.”
She adds, smiling: “Not everyone may get what’s going on in this play. But it should be great because it’s fun.”
Well that’s cleared that up. Sort of. But it doesn’t matter. The concept is so intriguing it will carry audiences along on the journey.
But what of Nalini’s career? She was writing for River City. Why has that stopped? Too strange/awkward writing for a series she had once acted in?
“There were moments of strangeness,” she agrees. “It was funny to be on the other side. But it was more about feeling River City had its own world and you can’t dip in and dip out.
“You have to watch the show religiously, and live it and love it. I did love it, but I’d done almost five years of acting in it and then a year and a half writing. It was great experience but ...”
She takes a beat and thinks:
“I think if you want to be creative, you have to move on.”
That makes sense. The mind that once secured five As at Higher likes to be stretched.
But that writing isn’t easy when you have a two-year-old to look after. “And it’s hard to be creative when you’re not contracted to write something,” she says.
“If someone says to you ‘Yes, write up that idea and bring it to us,’ and it’s not definite, somehow you get caught up in batch cooking and cleaning out nappy bins.”
She adds, her voice becoming a little darker. “Writing’s hard. And it’s been very difficult to make the commitment. So I’ve had a wee bit of a break.”
There’s another reason why dreams were dropped and plans pushed aside.
Nalini’s mum died i n November. The death, she acknowledges, meant life suddenly took on a very different form. She takes a little gulp of air and continues.
“It’s one of those things that propels you into a very different phase of your life. It makes you re-evaluate. I needed to have six months of being with the wee one.
“Then we moved house as well. I just needed time to get myself together, to think about things.”
Nalini’s partner, Alan, is a lawyer and they met on a blind date, set up by her sister and brother-in-law, who are also lawyers.
“We met in 2013 in the Waverley Tea Rooms in Glasgow and were married two years later. I suppose you get to a stage in life when you just know what you want.”
Nalini grew up believing she would become a lawyer, or perhaps a doctor, but took off to Bristol University to study drama.
“At one point after my degree I applied to do a legal conversion.”
This suggests she wasn’t hell-bent on a performing life?
“Well, having done a degree in drama I realised I wasn’t qualified for anything. And at this point I was working in a perfume shop.
“But I also thought about applying to drama school.”
Fate decided and Nalini was accepted to drama college. However, her parents – her dad, a South African Indian, and mum, a teacher from Grangemouth – fully expected young Nalini to follow big sister into law.
But they came round. And with increased success they warmed all the more.
Now, Nalini is sure she wants to keep acting. She reveals she will also be back on stage with the Citizens Theatre in the summer in Cyrano de Bergerac. Luca, she says, is a really sociable wee boy and he’ll be just fine with the childminder and his gran.
And writing? Surely she can write roles for herself. “But it’s finding time. If I could clone myself ... although Alan says he doesn’t think he could handle more than one of me,” she says, laughing.
Nalini adds: “Time is allimportant. Time to be a mum, a writer, an actor and ...” Have a life? “Yes, exactly. Have a life.”
Yes, but you don’t have to worry long term. Right now, film producers will be commissioning script ideas for a film about the life of Meghan Markle.
And wouldn’t the Scots actress, who once played the role of Princess Jasmine at the Ayr Gaiety panto, be perfect for her? “Oh, I would,” she says, laughing. “So let’s hope.”
Ma, Pa And The Little Mouths, Tron Theatre, May 3-12.
You have to watch the show religiously, and live it and love it